A Reflection for Advent 2023 with Laudate Deum

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The Office of Peace, Justice and Ecological Integrity of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth has put together a great resource for Christian communites and individuals (and others) to use during the coming Advent season. The Advent resource incorporates Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudate Deum, which follows up on the pontiff’s encyclical Laudato Si.   Here is the first entries to the calendar. Click on the link to see the full calendar.

A Pilgrimage of Reconciliation with the World that Is Our Home

Advent 2023 with Laudate Deum

Pray for COP28, the climate summit in Dubai, November 30th– December 12th. Pope Francis will attend!

“I ask everyone to accompany this pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home and to help make it more beautiful.” (LD, 69)

Dec 3 First Sunday of Advent Plan to read Laudate Deum this Advent in a contemplative spirit.
Dec 4 Have you taken the Laudate Deum Action Pledge? A great practice for Advent.
Dec 5 “What would it mean to rediscover the biblical sense of the natural world groaning, hoping, waiting for liberation?” Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ

Here is the full calendar

Fall Gathering: Closing Blessing

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As we go forth into this threshold time of seasons changing and looking ahead to the turning of the year, we offer to you a closing blessing from Clara Sims,  IPL NM/EP assistant executive director.

Photo by Caryl McHarney, Sprout award recipient

Great and moving mystery who gathers us together –

Bless us as we go to be people whose commitment to renewal shines as radiant as the sun.

Bless us to be people who listen to the teachers who are singing, speaking, shouting from each corner of this vast creation –

Bless us to be people who listen to Stars, to Swallowtails, to Dandelions growing through the cracks of concrete sidewalks, defying their own displacement – daring us to defy our own destruction.

Bless us to people who turn toward one another and our wounds with questions of courage and conviction and commitment to the kaleidoscope of wisdom, beauty and truth that grace the great diversity of cultures and traditions which are rising from the Earth.

Bless us to be people who know that the strength of Spirit is always moving in us – mysteriously, magnificently, mischievously – multiplying our efforts, our prayers, our longings, our dreams for tomorrows undivided.

Bless us most especially to be people who are healers – people building with our words and our hands a world that is known by no other name than sacred.

Bless it be. 

Fall Gathering 2023: Wonderful Music, Wise Words, Beautiful Moments

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By Clara Sims
Assistant Executive Director, IPL New Mexico & El Paso

This year’s Annual Gathering celebration, held at Monte Vista Christian Church in Albuquerque on October 19, was filled with wonderful music, wise words, and beautiful moments of honoring our Sprout and Seed awardees.

Bishop Hunn, Ryan Tate, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Clara Sims

Our panel discussion offered profound insight for pathways to healing sacred relationships in our world and we are grateful the event was recorded so folks can go back and revisit what was shared. Especially prominent in that conversation was the theme of ancestry – the pain, the beauty, the possibilities that can awaken in us as we become present to our ancestors’ living presence in us, in the land, in everything. I hope if you did not have the opportunity to attend that you will go back and listen to this rich conversation – it was a balm and an inspiration. Thank you Ryan, Eilleen, and Bishop Hunn!

Interwoven throughout our time together, was stunning music offered by David Poole.

Thank you, David, for offering and teaching us songs of peace and healing and hope for our beloved people and our beloved planet. May we all continue to find such needed, embodied ways to pray for healing and peace.

Thank You!

To our Sprout and Seed awardees – we thank you again for your incredible spirits of love and dedication to our sacred earth home. The words you offered in receiving these awards were full of such tenderness and wisdom and they were a beautiful reminder of all we learn about ourselves and one another when we pause to give thanks.

Here again, were our awardees this year:

  • SPROUT: Judy Smith, Congregation Albert Green Team and NM IPL Board Member
  • SPROUT: Sr. Odile Coirier, El Paso Organizer with NM & EL Paso Region IPL
  • SPROUT: Norm Gaume, Middle Rio Grande Advocates
  • SPROUT: Caryl McHarney, educator and eco-artist
  • SEED: Little Sisters of the Poor with Villa Guadalupe Care Facility

Continuing in a spirit of thanksgiving, we want to give a special shout out to our Annual Gathering Planning team: Hayley, Cynthia, Ruth, Terry, Emma, Arcelia and Joan! From the delicious, locally sourced food to the delightful offerings of the evening, to the photography and video duties, you made it possible. Thank you!

We ended the event with a reflection from  Clara Sims, IPL NM/EP assistant executive director. Here is the closing blessing